1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to an automobile infrared night vision device, and to a vehicle having such a device.
2. Related Art of the Invention
DE 197 36 774 A1 discloses a method for displaying information in a motor vehicle, in the case of which there is displayed on a display unit only a section of particular relevance from an image recorded by a daylight camera in a vehicle. In this case, the appropriate image data are selected from the overall image starting from a selection criterion. The contours of traffic signs within the daylight picture serve here as selection criterion. A simple and comprehensible representation of a traffic sign is displayed as a result to the vehicle driver, in particular as a reminder function.
Automobile night vision devices are disclosed in DE 39 32 216 C2 and DE 40 07 646 A1.
These show a camera that has a sensitivity in the nonvisible frequency range of light, for example with a wavelength of between 800 nm and 2000 nm. Moreover, these references show light sources for illuminating the surroundings that emit polarized or non-polarized infrared light. The infrared light reflected from the surroundings is picked up by the infrared camera and imaged on a display device that is arranged in the field of view of the vehicle driver, for example as a head-up display. In this case, the image data picked up by the camera are reproduced by the display unit. The known automobile night vision devices are difficult to handle for the user and turn out not to be very useful.
Also known is a night vision vision system that has an image processing unit interposed between the IR camera and the display. In this case, the image data of the IR camera are subjected before being displayed to simple processing for the purpose, in essence, of freeing the signal from noise components.